


Their Last Time

by Spn_kink_sock



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Adultery, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Barebacking, Cheating, Dean is sixteen, Divorce, Emotionally Hurt Dean Winchester, Knotting, M/M, Mates, Mpreg, Not hunters, Pining, Pining Sickness, Sick Dean Winchester, Teen Pregnancy, Underage Sex, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:54:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22115962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spn_kink_sock/pseuds/Spn_kink_sock
Summary: Castiel is married but has fallen in love with with teenage Dean and thinks Dean might be the mate he was mean to have. In an attempt to save his marriage, Castiel gets a job in a different part of the country. The night they part, Castiel and Dean have one last hurrah, but without a condom like they usually use.Dean ends up pregnant and when he tries to contact Castiel, the number now belongs to someone else. Pregnant and alone and having decided to keep the baby, Dean runs away from home, fearing that like with many teenage Omegas, his baby will be stolen from him. He feels he’s been abandoned by the Alpha that should have been his mate and for an Omega, that is not without consequences.Castiel, newly divorced from Amelia, returns to town just in time for dangerously ill Dean to give birth. Can he salvage his relationship with the mate he was supposed to have or is it too late?
Relationships: Castiel/Amelia Novak, Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 16
Kudos: 313





	Their Last Time

**Author's Note:**

> A completed fill for the below prompt. Finished and slightly expanded from what was posted to the LJ kink meme
> 
> https://spnkink-meme.livejournal.com/153677.html?thread=47235405

He never thought this kind of thing could happen to him, this grand passion and unlikeliest of loves. He’d been so content with Amelia, even though they couldn’t have children. It had been a happy home. She was Beta and they made for a happy home, even if they usually weren’t fertile. 

Then came Dean. Castiel groaned as he sat in his car, maybe might have even pounded the steering wheel. Dean, his co-worker Sam Winchester’s little brother, met at a party the older Winchester brother had thrown three months ago. Dean was so perfect, so Omega, so beautiful. Not that Amelia wasn’t pretty, but Dean was arrestingly beautiful. More than just perfect in himself, he was perfect for Castiel, his scent on Castiel blending so perfectly that Amelia hadn’t even noticed, just found him even more appealing. This morning, still asleep, she had burrowed into the crook of his neck, rooting for his scent glands and smiled in her sleep, then woken so aroused that for the first time in years, Castiel hadn’t needed artificial slick as he slid into her womanly body. 

He was going to have to meet Dean now, tell him the news that there was a sudden, unavoidable transfer at work, that he had to move out west. If he had pushed for that transfer, Dean would never know. It was the only way Castiel could save his marriage, the only way he could give Dean up was to be all the way across the country from the Omega.

Castiel let himself into the motel room he’d checked into. Dean slipped in after him, a few minutes later.

The news did not go over well. 

“Why?! Why?” Dean had cried out in anguish, as if Castiel had physically struck him. Then Dean had tried to punch Castiel, though an Omega was always weak and ineffectual against an Alpha, so Castiel allowed Dean to weakly hit his chest a few times before collapsing in tears. Even weeping, the Omega was so beautiful that Castiel, who had resolved he would do this no longer, lifted up Dean’s chin and kissed him full on those pink Cupid bow lips. Then one thing led to another and they were naked in the motel bed with each other. Castiel reached for his coat pocket where he normally kept condoms when he was planning to meet Dean. There weren’t any. He hadn’t brought any because he had told himself he wouldn’t be doing exactly what he was now doing. 

“It’s okay,” Dean said. “Just please. I need this. One last time. Want your knot one last time.”

So he’d done the stupidest thing he’d ever done. He pushed Dean onto his back, hiked the boy’s legs up and pressed his naked cock into Dean’s pussy. It had been fast, messy, Dean wetter with slick than he’d ever been. Cas had never been harder. They were both weeping together at the end, as Dean’s internal muscles held tight to Castiel’s knot. The scent gland on the side of Dean’s neck was flushed bright red and all it would take to mate them at this moment would be for him to place his mouth there. Instinct would take over. He kissed Dean’s mouth over and over again just to keep it away from Dean’s neck.

They were tied together for nearly forty five minutes, a record for Castiel. When he was finally able to pull out, all of Dean’s genitalia was covered with Castiel’s semen. It dripped out of Dean’s pussy, covered those pink lips covered in light golden hair, even got on Dean’s small cocklet and tiny balls. 

“I’m sorry. This has to be our last time,” Cas said as he dressed. “We can never be alone together again.”

***

Dean had been certain almost immediately after. He just felt different. He felt a spark, maybe, inside him. Something. But he pushed back and pushed back taking the test, not wanting it to be true. 

He had no idea what he would do if it was true. Dad would kill him. Dean was, after all, still supposed to be a virgin. He hadn’t dared take off the thin gold purity band Dad had placed there on his ring finger in the church ceremony a week after Dean presented as Omega. Mom wouldn’t kill him, but she would be so disappointed. She would give him those sad but judgmental looks, like she had for weeks and weeks after he’d failed high school calculus. But more so, because this wasn’t some math class but something that would really affect his future. 

In the end, he took a test in Sam’s bathroom. Sam and Jess were trying to conceive, hoping they would be one of those lucky few who could beat Beta infertility and have a baby. So Jess had bunches of pregnancy tests, ovulation tests and so on. No one would miss one and no one would notice an extra used one in the trash. 

The little blue plus symbol started filling in almost immediately and just grew darker and stronger as time crawled to the end of the timer on his phone. He was, without a doubt, pregnant. He’d known it already but there it was, writ in blue and white plastic. In the end, he didn’t bury the test in the bathroom trash like he planned. He took it with him, wrapping it up in toilet paper, then burying it at very most bottom of his backpack. 

He pulled up the texting app immediately. He’d been strong. He hadn’t tried to contact Cas once since he’d gone, no matter how much his heart had ached but he had to now. 

“Cas, you gotta call me,” he texted as he felt the pain in his chest. Again. He’d been feeling it a lot lately, since Cas was gone, but never quite as bad as it was at that moment. 

A moment later, he received back, “New phone. Who dis?”

It didn’t seem like the kind of joke Cas would make, not that he was given to joking at all, but Dean tried again, “I’m serious Cas. This is big news. Please. This isn’t the time to joke.”

“I’m not Cas,” the text came back. “My name is Amy. I just got this phone. I’m sorry I don’t know who your Cas is.”

He just stared at the screen for minutes, heart broken, scared shitless. Not only had Cas ended it, he’d gotten a whole new phone number, abandoned this one. There was no way for Dean to contact him. Yes, he’d met Cas at one of Sam’s parties, but Sam had said that he didn’t really know Cas that well, that Cas normally kept to himself at work, didn’t socialize much outside of work. He was alone. Dean had been abandoned by the only Alpha he’d ever wanted. 

A moment later, the screen lit up again with a new text. 

“U seem upset. U ok?”

No. No, no he wasn’t. Not in the slightest.

He thought about his options and came to the conclusion that the only thing he could do was run away. He knew what would happen if he stayed. There’s be all the trouble and the disappointment, but in the end, they’d take the baby from him. 

They’d give the kid to Sam and Jess to raise, for sure. It’d be put to him like it was a wonderful thing- him giving his brother and his wife the gift of a baby, that at least the baby would stay in the family, all that crap. But it wouldn’t be his baby any more. He’d seen this happen before with other kids at high school. The Omega kid screws up. The baby given to the older Alpha brother. After the birth, everybody pretends that the Omega has nothing at all to do with the baby, that it came right from the Beta’s barren cooch and the Omega was left out cold, not even allowed to hold his own baby. 

Screw that. Maybe he wouldn’t have to stay away forever but he had to stay away until weeks, maybe a couple months after the baby was born, so that the kid would be bonded to him, no chance the mother bond could form with Jess. Not that he didn’t like her. She was great. But this was his baby and his last part of the one and only love of his life. 

He knew he had to get out of there soon, before people would start being able to scent that he was pregnant. That night, he packed up as much as he could, took all the money he had stashed from birthdays and Christmas gifts. It wasn’t much, but it would get him a bus ticket to somewhere. He left his purity ring on his desk, the thin gold band looking tiny on the broad wood expanse. He climbed out the window, onto the roof below, then treaded silently as he could over the back kitchen addition, then shimmied down the old cottonwood tree that dad had been threatening to cut down for as long as Dean could remember. He was gone by midnight. 

Dean walked down the state road until it met the interstate. There was a big truck stop there and he was pretty sure he could hitch a ride to Kansas City from there. He wasn’t sure how, but he’d seen it done on the TV. He didn’t see any drivers in their cars or trucks, so he wandered into the stop itself. There was a family style restaurant attached with a handful of occupied booths. Most of them had a sole occupant- some guy, Alpha mostly, dressed in work shirts or plaid, jeans with a gimme cap on their heads- usually advertising some truck or truck part, though one guy had a hat that said, “Ass, Cash or Grass- no one rides free.” Dean stayed far away from that guy, not that most of the other guys looked much more appealing. They stared hungrily at him. They smelled bad- from just stale to outright like something dead for one ugly dude. Dean’s inner Omega was clawing at him to get out of this place.

He was about to give up and just start walking down the interstate when he saw the two blondes. They looked almost like brother and sister, both with long hair, though the dude’s hair was short up front, party in the back. He wore the plaid shirt that seemed to be the uniform, but his had cut off sleeves and a tank top underneath. The girl was one of the prettiest he’d ever seen, with long blonde loose curls. She wore a tight tank top with a khaki utility jacket. The mullet dude was working on a weird looking lap top and the woman was inhaling a plate of fries. The mullet dude, surprisingly, was an Alpha. He didn’t look it, though he smelled it. Dean knew that Alpha traits didn’t always manifest in physical prowess, but sometimes gave rise to mental prowess. The mullet dude sniffed deeply, then looked up from his screen, look of concern on his face.

“Hey, do you need any help, guy? We can help. I’m Ash, this is Jo,” he said, voice low and extra gentle, as kind Alphas did sometimes when they were talking to strange Omegas. The blonde woman turned and looked at Dean at the same time.

She smiled at Dean, then punched the mullet dude in the upper arm, “You are such a softy, Ash. You can’t pick up every stray along the highway.”

“If you could scent Omega distress like I can you would do just the same thing,” he said. 

“I just need a ride,” Dean said. “A ride to anywhere. I just have to get out of here.”

“That’s easy enough,” the Alpha said. “We’re headed back to Nebraska. We could drop you at Omaha. I know people who’d give you a ride west if you need to go further than that.”

“Hey! You can’t just be offering rides in my truck,” Jo said, punching the Alpha in the arm again. “You don’t even buy gas.”

“And who is it that makes all of your speeding tickets vanish? Yeah, thought so. So, you want a burger? My treat. You smell hungry.”

Later, after Dean had thrown the burger and fries down his face, happy that the baby was letting him eat without making him yak it all up again, they headed out to Jo’s ride. 

She had a big, black truck with some serious locked tool boxes in the bed and a crew cab up front. There were all kinds of symbols painted in red, silver and other colors on the truck, including one that Dean recognized as a five pointed star, like Satanists used. They were small and you might have missed them, but there was a big star on the truck bed.

“Whoa,” he said when he saw that, backing up and deciding that it was a very bad plan to get into a car with a couple of random devil worshipers. 

Ash seemed to understand Dean’s hesitation. Maybe they got this reaction all the time. He said, “It’s not devil worship. That’s a Solomon’s Seal. It’s protection against the devil. All of this is protection against demons and Lucifer.”

Then Ash pulled out a crucifix that had been hiding under his shirt, “I’m saved, accepted Jesus as my savior.”

“And I just promise not to hurt you,” Jo said. “Ash is right. All of this is for protection.”

“Against what?” Dean said. He didn’t really believe in the devil. Hell, he hardly believed in God. They were always kind of Christmas and Easter Christian’s in his family. But these people seemed like halfway to wacko. Nice wackos at least.

“You don’t wanna know. You want a rid to Omaha still?” She asked. 

He considered his other options, like Mr. Ass, Cash or Grass in the restaurant or the other Alphas that had stared at him, mentally undressing him as he walked past, sniffing in his scent like they owned it. Despite the visuals on the truck, he had a good feeling about these too that he hadn’t had about anyone else in that whole restaurant. Neither of them smelled wonderful and perfect like Cas had, but they both smelled good and safe, a scent that he liked quite a bit. She smelled like fresh laundry with cherry chapstick and Ash smelled like the library, but also a bit like his third grade teacher.

“Yeah, thanks,” Dean said. Dean went for the back door to the truck cab but Ash reached in front of him and opened the front passenger seat door and motioned him to sit, then took one of the back seats for himself and his laptop. Jo, of course, took the driver’s seat. Dean was fast asleep before they even left the county. 

When he woke, they were driving west, dawn tinting the sky behind them pink. Dean was stiff from having slept sitting up in the car. Jo was batting at a cassette tape that Ash was trying to get her take. Dean grabbed it and pronounced, “Zep IV. This one’s a classic. Awesome.”

Some whiny singer chick was on the stereo, so Dean moved to eject that tape in favor of the one hundred percent more awesome music they could be listening to. Jo put her hand in front of the slot for the tape.

“Driver picks the music. Passengers shut their cakeholes,” she said, then she took the tape from Dean and threw it back into the back with Ash.

About ten in the morning, after several bathroom breaks, they pulled into the gravel parking lot of a dusty looking bar. Dean looked around. This sure didn’t look like Omaha. It looked like the boonies, but Jo and Ash seemed happy to be here, so he followed them out of the truck.

“Not Omaha, I know,” Ash said. “We talked and we thought maybe you could use a few squares and a couple of nights in an actual bed, before you decide where you’re going, so we brought you home.”

“There’s a grey hound runs through town about once a day if you decide you want to get on a bus from here,” Jo added. 

He followed them into the bar, which was empty in the morning light, but still smelled of beer, cigarettes and stale Alpha from the night before. Ash slipped behind a door off the hallway. Half a second later, he adjusted a sign on it so it read, “Dr. Bad Ass is in”, but then he shut the door behind him. 

“Mom! Bobby! We’re home.” Jo called. 

A woman with long-ish, straight brown hair stepped out of some back room. She wore jeans and plaid and looked like she was used to taking no shit from anyone, despite being a Beta. 

“This is Dean, one of Ash’s strays,” Jo explained. “We picked him up in Kansas.”

Jo’s Mom sniffed the air lightly. “Did you run cause of the baby?” She asked. 

“Something like that,” Dean said. Jo’s mom sighed.

“I’m Ellen,” she said. “We’d better get you set up with a room for now.”

Before she could lead him back down the hallway that Ash’s room had come off of, a man strolled into the bar. This must be Bobby. The man dumped a big pile of old, books on the bar top. A little puff of dust rose off them in a cloud. They were all covered in leather, except one that looked kind of like leather, but somehow seemed awful. Like bad vibes just rose off the book. 

As for the man himself, he had a grumpy face and he sounded irritated when he spoke, talking into a cell phone as he walked, “Garth, I’m pretty sure what you’re dealing with is a Shtriga. Yes, no shit it’s dangerous. No, no weapon made by God or man. Except one thing- round of consecrated iron while it’s feeding.”

He paused a moment, listening to the phone at a distance from his ear. Something that sounded like screams were heard from the tinny speaker. “No clue why that boy ain’t dead yet,” he said as he hung up. 

“What’s a shree teega?” Dean asked, confused. 

Bobby and Ellen looked at each other, speaking without talking, the kind of close communication you saw with mated couples sometimes. 

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Bobby said. “Let’s get you taken care of. Looks like you run yourself hard and put yourself down wet.”

Ellen set him up in a guest room. It looked like was usually used for storage for the bar sometimes, but the industrial style shelves along the north wall were mostly empty of boxes. There was a bed and a desk and a window. The blanket on the bed was an old army wool blanket and the walls were plain white, the floor linoleum like in the bar, but it was better than Dean had any right to expect be given to him for just kindness sake. 

“I’ll see if I can’t dig up some more pillows and blankets. I know how you Omegas can be with your nesting,” Ellen said. Then she left him alone. 

Dean thought he’d fall asleep right away. He was exhausted after the long night drive, even though he’d slept quite a big. Car hours of sleep only count as half hours, really, Dean thought. He didn’t fall asleep though. He stared at his phone. It wasn’t much use to him here. They really were far from the city. He didn’t get so much as a single bar of reception. He stared at the lit up screen, looking at the last words from the woman who now had Castiel’s phone number. U ok? No, he never would be okay again. He’d been abandoned by the Alpha that should have been his mate. 

He knew, should have known it would end ugly with his heart broke into pieces. Castiel was married. She was a beautiful blonde woman. Dean had been sure Cas would leave Amelia for him once he realized how perfect a mate for him Dean would be. Dean was Omega. An Alpha was meant to be with a Omega. Only, Cas loved his wife and didn’t love Dean. Or at least, didn’t love Dean enough to leave his marriage. 

That last time, when they were tied together, Cas had said that he couldn’t mate Dean, that Dean would understand in time that he deserved someone better than Castiel. That someday, he would meet someone who could love him with his full heart, unreservedly. Castiel had obligations. He’d already made promises to someone else. He couldn’t love Dean with one hundred percent of his heart. Someday, Dean would be loved that way, but now was not that time and Castiel was not that Alpha. 

He did eventually fall asleep and didn’t wake until it was dark outside. On the other side of his door, he could hear music and laughter, the sounds of a crowd. It was a bar after all. He only woke because Bobby entered the room with an armful of blankets, comforters and even some of those fake fur throw blankets, He tossed them down on desk and sniffed the air.

“We gonna have to take you to the hospital for pining sickness?” He asked. “You scent like you’re pretty bad off.”

Dean’s heart did seem to flutter and ache. It was rare, but Omegas did die of literal broken hearts sometimes when abandoned by their Alphas. Dean didn’t think he was nearly that bad off. He shook his head but he couldn’t speak. The words just twisted themselves in his brain and couldn’t seem to make it to his mouth. 

“I take it the Alpha that got you this way took to his heels,” Bobby said. He tossed Dean one of the faux fur throws. Dean nodded as he wrapped the fluffy thing around his shoulders. Then blanket by blanket, Bobby helped him pile them on his bed, under and around himself. “You must have been near mates to be this bad off, so sudden.”

Dean didn’t understand why he couldn’t make himself get out of the bed once he’d built his nest. If he was hit by pining sickness, why it hadn’t struck sooner, like right after Castiel had moved away, instead of now, three months later. If he was so ill from it, why had he been able to sneak out of his house, find his way to the truck stop and out of state, only to collapse then after he’d made his way to the Roadhouse and the safe, kind people who ran it. 

The second day after he couldn’t roust himself out of bed, excepting a few times to visit the bathroom, they found a doctor of sorts, and brought her to him. Her name was Pamela, she’d said. She wore a sleeveless Ramones t-shirt and blue jeans, but she said she was a mid-wife and she seemed competent enough as she listened to his heart with a stethoscope and did all the usual medical stuff, including touching his just barely soft belly with this thing. She said it was a Doppler and would let her listen to the baby’s heartbeat. 

She let him put the headphones over his own ears and he listened to a rapid whooshing sound, like waves crashing on a shore in triple time. That was his baby and he knew it had been worth running- to protect that little, fluttery life inside him.

“Ok, you’re in a bit of a state. Normally if I saw a pregnant Omega looking like you do now, I’d take him to the hospital, but Ellen says you’re on the run from home and you think your family is planning to take the baby and give him away. So, that means off the grid, which means no hospital. If you get worse, you’re going in, but for now, I think we can keep that off the table. ”

He tried to say something but couldn’t. The words got all tangled in his brain again. Just like they did after the big fire that had taken their house. They’d all gotten out safe, him, Mom, Dad and Sammy, but they’d been homeless for a while and Dean had found he couldn’t talk. Selective mutism, they’d called it and he’d had to go visit this therapist lady for a long time after.

“You can’t talk?” She asked. Dean shook his head. She looked kindly at him and said, “I’m not surprised. It should pass in a few days, once you start to recover. They call it pining sickness but it really should be called something like Traumatic Abandonment and Interrupted Mating syndrome. I guess that’s a bit of a mouthful. Not short and zippy like pining sickness. But being abandoned by a mate like this is every bit as traumatic as if your mate died. Unfortunately, like other kinds of trauma, it takes time to heal.

“I want you on bed rest for now. Hospital would be better, maybe, though honestly not much they can do for you but close monitoring. The baby sounds good and strong on the Doppler at least and we’ll monitor you closely here.”

And then she left him, alone with his fear. 

But a short while later, Bobby came in, small stack of dusty books in hand. He looked grumpy. He looked like he always looked grumpy, but he smelled anything but. He just smelled safe. Like Old Spice, but also like home. Dean didn’t have any uncles, but he imagined if he did, they would smell like that to him. Bobby pulled the desk chair over to the bed and sat down. He read out loud, some folk story about an Omega and an Angel. Dean couldn’t follow it, but hearing the low, grumbly sounds of the Alpha made Dean feel maybe a little better.

Different people came and sat with him, mostly kind, gentle Alphas, like Bobby and Ash. A couple times, an Alpha called Rufus joined Bobby. They seemed to be close friends. Sometimes, it was Ellen or Jo. They fed him, spooning things like soup and pudding into his mouth when he couldn’t find it in him to even lift a utensil to his mouth. They washed him clean right in bed. Pamela visited him every day, but there really wasn’t anything she could for him. His heart just had to decide he wasn’t going to die because it was broken. 

They took care of him and he couldn’t even thank them. He just wondered why the hell they were taking such good care of a stupid, knocked up Omega who couldn’t even stop his Alpha from going away and leaving him alone. He didn’t understand why they didn’t let him just crawl off and die, like he wanted. None of the Alphas scented him directly, but every one of them made sure to throw off tons of scent in the air, something that was sure to make an Omega feel calm and happy. Protected. It wasn’t the scent of mate but of something like pack. They’d taken him in without question and just because he needed it.

Things got better slowly. So slowly. A week later, he could sit up, just barely, in bed. He could feed himself again, with supervision. His chest still hurt but it felt like he could breathe again. He still couldn’t force words out of the jumble that his brain had become. A month later, he had found a few, simple words- yeah, no, thanks. He didn’t have a bump yet, but there was an undeniably softness to his belly, a slight roundedness. He made his way out of the room sometimes, mostly just to the bathroom, but also to the bar itself, during the day time when it was empty. 

“Hey,” Jo said on a Tuesday in the middle of the day, about five weeks after he’d arrived. She was stocking, obviously prepping the bar for the busy evening hours. “Maybe you should go back to bed. You look terrible.”

“Thanks, you too,” Dean said, 

“Seriously, dude, should you even be out of bed yet?” 

“Pamela said it would be good for me to walk a little.”

“Maybe you should take your walk to the shower.”

“Maybe you should take a shower,” he said, unable to think of a snappy comeback. 

***

About six weeks after he arrived, he was sitting at the bar, looking at one of Bobby’s books. He didn’t have a chance in hell of reading the spiky, gothic printing. He was pretty sure it was in German anyway. He liked looking at the primitive woodcut prints of the monsters that illustrated the pages.

Bobby came up to him and swapped out the book and shoved some newspaper clippings under his nose. It was a bunch of stories. About him. About how he was missing. About how his parents were asking for any information about his whereabouts. 

‘You might want to think about calling your folks,” Bobby said. “Ain’t none of my business, but they look like they want to hear from you and like maybe they’d be so glad to see you that they wouldn’t care some Alpha got you in trouble.”

“I don’t know. I miss them, but I’m scared,” Dean said.

“If it helps, you don’t have to go with them, just because they want you to. As a pregnant Omega, here in Nebraska, that makes you a legal adult. I looked that up.” Jo said, from the other side of the bar. She was cutting up lemons and limes. Dean felt ashamed. These people were always working at something, as far as he could tell. The bar work. Bobby seemed also to run some kind of auto business. Then there was this weird ass research he did into obscure mythology. Ash and Jo went off every couple of weeks for work trips. They all worked hard.

Then there was Dean, mooching off of them, barely able to get out of bed for nearly two months now. They’d fed him, clothed him, sat with him when things had been so bad he could hardly breathe, got him a midwife without any mention of how he was going to pay her. They’d even cleaned out his throw up buckets from the occasional burst of morning sickness he’d had while confined to bed. All they were asking in return was he call his parents and let them know that he was okay. 

And what Jo said, about him being a legal adult, just because of the kid, that was frightening, but true. He’d elected, by running away, to take sole responsibility for this kid. That didn’t meant he just wanted the hell out of his own mom and dad sometimes. 

So, he found himself calling home. Jo had brought out a telephone from behind the bar. It was an old model, heavy enough that it landed on the bar top with a substantial crash and a slight ring from the metal inside the heavy plastic. At least it wasn’t one of those rotary dial ones, but looked like from about the same era, like they would have still been making those when they made this one. The handset was still connected to the phone with one of those stretchy, spiral cords. He picked it up, and started pushing the buttons, dialing in the long familiar number of home. 

It rang, and again and again. Five times and he was about to hang up, when it was answered, somewhat breathlessly, by his father, announcing, ‘Winchesters.”

“Dad?” Dean asked. 

“Dean! Thank God. Where are you? I’ll come get you. My, God, Dean, we just,” Dad trailed off, as if there were things he couldn’t say, couldn’t admit to. 

“Dad, what are you doing home in the middle of the day?” Dean asked. He’d expected he’d get his mom and he thought that might have been an easier conversation to have than whatever kind of talk he’d have with Dad. 

“Are you kidding? My kid has been missing for over six weeks. Disappeared in the middle of the night, no trace. We’ve been fearing the worst. Your mother hasn’t been taking this well. Just please tell me you’re ready to come home.”

“I, uh, don’t know,” Dean said. “It’s complicated.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. Dean, come home,” Dad said. 

Then the phone sounded like it was ripped from his dad’s hands and suddenly Mom was on the line, sounding like she was talking through tears. “Dean? Baby? Where have you been? Are you okay? I was so scared for you.”

“I’m fine now. These people have been helping me. I got sick and I couldn’t get out of bed or talk for a while, but I’m getting better. They took care of me.”

“I should be the one taking care of you if you were that sick,” Mom said. Dean’s heart sunk as he knew that it was true and pregnancy hormones really sucked, because suddenly he was crying, because he’d taken that chance from his own mother and because he missed her and dad and every little thing about home. He couldn’t talk any more, the words getting tangled again, so he set the phone handset down on the bar and just cried, heart breaking. 

Bobby picked up the phone and he was talking into it, but Dean couldn’t hear what he said over the rush of emotions overwhelming him.

Dean ended up crawling back into the nest he’d built on the bed in the room they’d given him, wrapping himself in blankets like a burrito, exhausted by the sudden gusher of emotions. He’d hardly thought about his family for so long and now he felt as guilty as hell. To be fair, nobody really talked about it, but he had the feeling that he’d been clinging just barely to life for a while. Even now, he was still a lot weaker than he should have been. After this blow of realizing just what he’d done to his mom and dad, he felt so weak he couldn’t sit up again. He’d cut himself off from the people who should have done the most to protect him when his heart was literally breaking. 

He must have fallen asleep, because when he woke again, it was dark. Ash was sitting in the room with him. The air was just flooded with the scent of him- the Alpha protective scent- the one that said pack. Not mate. Never mate again, Dean thought. It was calming, but it wasn’t quite right. The scent around him now should have been his father, maybe his older brother too. Ash and all of them were so kind. They’d taken a stranger into their midst without question, but that’s all he would be to them for a long time. He should be at home with family. These people, they might be family to him some day, but they weren’t yet. 

“Hey, I guess your family is on their way to get you,” Ash said. “But say the word and I can make you disappear, if you don’t want to go with them.”

“No, I think it’s time for me to go home,” Dean said, rubbing his belly, hoping like hell that his home would include the little bean growing inside him, that they wouldn’t insist on rooting it out or worse forcing him to grow it, then handing the result over to someone else. He’d explain about Cas and maybe, just maybe, they would understand. 

***

In the end, it wasn’t Mom or Dad who showed up at the Roadhouse, but Sammy, driving Dad’s second car- the Impala. The Impala wasn’t Dad’s main car, just the old, extra one that he couldn’t bear to get rid of. Dad had offered it, half heartedly, to Sam, who hadn’t take it. Dean knew that, as an Omega, he could never hope to have such an awesome car offered to him. That sort of thing was only ever given to the Alpha son. 

When the Impala had rolled up to the Roadhouse, Dean had already said his goodbyes to Ash and Bobby, Joe and Ellen and everyone else and thanked them as best he could. He knew that he never had a chance to re-pay their kindness. He’d wept a little bit at the thought of loosing this new pseudo family, but Ash had done something to Dean’s phone, so it got signal at the roadhouse and everywhere else, and added everyone’s phone numbers at the same time. “You need us to come get you, just call,” Ash had said. “One of us will come get you. Drop everything.”

“Mom and Dad weren’t in any state to drive,” Sam snapped at him, as Dean turned to get in the car. Sam didn’t offer him a hug or make to scentmark him with calming, protective Alpha scent like an older brother should. “How could you do this to them Dean?”

How could he explain that it made sense at the time and that he was still afraid that Sam was going to steal his baby?

There was a lot of angry silence on both ends. Most of the car ride was spent with Dean just staring out to the rolling landscape. It’d been night and he’d slept most of the trip to Nebraska the first time. He hadn’t missed much, he thought, just fields and fields. Mostly corn, but sometimes soy, wheat. It was now September and the fields were getting close to harvest, so the corn stood tall, starting to fade from green to golden. 

Finally, as they hit the border with Kansas, Sam said, calmly, as if it was something that he’d rehearsed in his mind a lot before saying it out loud, “Jess and Me, we’re not taking your baby. I know a lot of families do that kind of thing, but we’re not a lot of families. If you wanted to give up your baby for adoption, then yeah, it makes sense to keep the baby in the family and Jess and I would raise it like our own. But we’re not going to steal your baby and honestly, it hurts that you think I could do something like that to you.”

Dean didn’t say anything right away. His heart hurt just that much more, knowing that he’d hurt Sam too. 

Finally, after a lot more fields and a small town or two, he was able to talk, “I know Jess would make a better mom than me. It’s stupid of me to want to keep my baby but he’s all I have left of Cas.”

“Cas was the one that did this to you? Cas Novak? Trench coat? Nerdy even for a tax lawyer?”

“Yes. I know he’s married. I know I’m an idiot.” Dean said, slinking down into his seat, aching at the reminder of Cas, who should have been his mate. Dean’s chest hurt again at the thought of it all. 

“I wondered why he left town in such a hurry. That promotion he took wasn’t much of a promotion. I mean, the title was better but there wasn’t any raise in pay to speak of. And man, nobody in their right mind would transfer to the Scottsdale branch.”

“He was running away from me. I was ruining his marriage,” Dean said. 

Sam frowned, shook his head. “Hey, you didn’t ruin anyone’s marriage. Cas ruined his own marriage when he decided to cheat. Don’t let anyone tell you that Alphas can’t control themselves. That’s bullshit. And fuck Cas for not manning up and standing by the Omega he got pregnant.”

“He doesn’t know. He changed his number. I couldn’t tell him.”

“I can find him for you. Someone at work has got to know how to get in contact with him.”

“Sam, no. Leave it. He didn’t want me. Don’t make him rub it in my face again. I don’t know if I could survive that.”

“Yeah, Ok,” Sam said, staring off into the distance, shaking his head. “Ok. I just want to help. Whatever you need, ok. Your family is here for you and the baby and we just want to do what’s best for you both.”

They were silent the rest of the way home. 

When they pulled into the driveway, both Mom and Dad rushed out of the house, no doubt alerted by the deep, throaty growl of the Impala. Dean was pulled out of his seat and crushed hard between his mom and dad. For the first time in a long time, Dean thought maybe he might be okay. Eventually. 

***

Castiel, like most nights, couldn’t sleep. It was too warm, here in Arizona. It should have been a cold, crisp night. It was November already. Instead, the warmth was just barely not stifling. He sat outside, staring at dark, star sprinkled sky, wishing he was anywhere but here.

Amelia came out from the house, wearing only a short, light pair of cotton pajamas. He’d shed his coat earlier, then his suit jacket and tie, but he was still in shirt sleeves. It was funny how, even in the face of blazing Arizona temperatures, he couldn’t give up his suit and tie. 

Most nights he sit up in the living room or on nights when the weather was close to tolerable, out on the back deck, thinking of his mistakes and failures, until he fell asleep, still mostly dressed. Tonight was not looking to be different than any other recent night. Not until Amelia walked out to join him. 

“You’re not happy here, are you?” She asked as she sat near him. Not next to him on the outdoor sofa like she once might have. She sat upright on a padded stool across from him. She did not reach for him, not even just his hands.

“No, I have,” Castiel thought about how to choose his words carefully. It was not Amelia’s fault he did not love her, not as a mate should. He probably never had, if he were truly honest. It was not her fault that he had met the Omega who should have been his mate, but only after being married to her for over ten years. “I have not adjusted well to Arizona, but I can see that you are happy here, being near your parents.”

Amelia’s parents had retired to Arizona and had taken immediately to the retiree life of golf and activities with the community center. And Amelia seemed happy whenever she was with them. Certainly happier than when she was with him.

“Castiel, there was someone, back in Kansas, wasn’t there?” Amelia asked. “I never said anything, because on your own, you did everything I would have asked you to do. You cut all contact. You left him behind in Kansas. I could only tell for sure someone’s scent had been on you when that scent was faded and gone.”

“Amelia, I don’t know what to say,” Cas said, looking at his empty hands. 

“The truth, Castiel. No more of these lies by omission, from either of us.”

“There was an Omega and I believe he was my God given mate, but I had already made promises to you, so I couldn’t make promises to him. I did everything in my power to withdraw from him. We moved halfway across the country for it.”

“ But your heart is still there. I think you should move back.”

There was a peculiar emphasis on ‘you’. She was not proposing that they move back to Kansas together. She thought he alone should return. 

“When I realized how far I had strayed from my vows, I did everything in my power to return to keeping them. I don’t want to separate from you. Therefore what God has joined together let no one separate.”

“If this Omega truly is your God given mate, then no man is putting us asunder. I’ve prayed on this, for weeks, and all I get is this calm certainty that the right thing for you to do is to leave me. I believe it’s God’s will that you return to Kansas.”

“Amelia, no,” Castiel said. “I would do anything.”

“It’s certainly my will that you leave, in any case,” she said. Then she stood up. “We’ll talk in the morning about seeing if we can get out of the lease, or if maybe it might be better for my parents to move in with me and share expenses.”

Thankfully, they had thought it wise not to purchase a house right off the bat, but had rented a house instead. It was as if they had both known, somehow, that Castiel was not likely to put down deep roots here in this place. 

“And you should consult an attorney. I already have,” she said. “Good night, Castiel. I’m sorry. I know I seem cold, but I’ve had a lot of time already to cry about it.”

“Amelia!”

“Please, Castiel. At least let me have some dignity.”

He should have been devastated. His ten year marriage had not withstood the shattering blow it received the night he first laid his eyes on Dean Winchester and decided that he didn’t care if it was a sin or that he was breaking his vows. Yes, there had been nearly a year where the empty shell of the marriage had stood up, not yet fallen apart, as he had frantically tried to apply glue. But now the pieces were falling down and all he could feel was relief. 

His first call the next morning was not to an attorney, but to Naomi at the Lawrence office, to see if anything was available. It seemed like fate when he learned that the person hired to replace him had just that morning been fired for embezzlement.

About nine months after he left it the first time, Castiel brought a small cardboard box of personal items into his office at the Lawrence, Kansas branch of Milton, Milligan and Morgan, LLP, the biggest company of tax advisors and consultants in the country. Little, if anything, seemed to have changed. It was nearly Christmas time again. He had met Dean at a Christmas party given by his older brother Sam. Maybe he would be invited to this year’s party and could reconnect with Dean then. In any case, the office had been decorated with such festivity as suited it- a tree in the lobby with white lights, gold ornaments and somber burgundy ribbons, a few tasteful wreathes and garlands here and there. Just like last year. 

Then Sam Winchester walked into his office and shut the door behind him, firmly. The year had sat well upon Sam’s shoulders. He’d been fresh out of school last year, a new hire. Sam was now broader in the shoulders and somehow taller, finally grown into a full adulthood. Alphas often did keep growing until twenty-two or three. In any case, he towered a good four or five inches over Castiel now. At six foot, Castiel was not short or small, but he felt that way as Sam walked up to him.

“Hello,” Castiel said. Something in Sam’s attitude and scent seemed immediately confrontation, but Castiel felt in no mood to respond or escalate.

“Hello?” 

“Yes, that is the correct greeting, is it not?”

“Hello? You son of a bitch,” he snarled, Alpha rage scent flooding the small office. His eyes had that particular kind of shine that preceded a red flare and his canine teeth seemed somehow longer and pointier. “You think you can just stroll back into this office, say hello and pick up your life where you left it, after what you did. If I didn’t have a pregnant wife to look after and could risk getting fired, I would beat the crap out of you right here.”

All kinds of thoughts raced through Castiel’s head- that Sam knew about Dean, that Dean had told or that it had come out in some way or another. That everyone knew. That his life here in Lawrence would be ruined again before it had even had a chance to restart. He hadn’t tried to contact Dean again, wanting to be settled back at work and stable, his divorce at least at the point of filing if not completed, before he contacted Dean and courted him properly this time. 

Stupidly though, the fact that stuck into his brain and popped out of his mouth was the most inappropriate at the moment. “Jessica is pregnant? Congratulations. That’s wonderful,” he said to the furious face of Sam Winchester. 

“What?” Sam snapped, confused. He shook his head slightly, as if to reset his thoughts. “Yeah, well, she’s not the only one, asshole.”

Now was his turn to be confused. Who else could possibly be pregnant in a way that would cause Sam Winchester such rage? His mother, Mary, was a lovely woman, but it was highly unlikely she would be pregnant again. It had been a near miracle that she’d caught twice from her Alpha husband. 

“We’ll talk later. I’m supposed to get you up to speed on the McLeod portfolios. They’ll be in your hands for the next month while I’m on family leave.”

“Is Jessica due already?”

Castiel thought it unlikely. He hadn’t heard any gossip about through the company. Perhaps there was some medical issue and the pregnancy was at risk, something not unlikely for a Beta/Alpha pregnancy. 

“No, not Jessica,” Sam said, darkly, then left Castiel’s office suddenly. Castiel was confused but just shook his head. Castiel knew his people skills were rusty and sometimes, he just gave up on interpreting confusing human interactions. He wasn’t sure what he had done that had gotten Sam so pissed at him, but since his talk with Amelia on the back deck that night, it seemed that everyone he knew was pissed at him for some reason or another. He just rolled with it as best he could.

Castiel got down to the business of settling back into his old office. It didn’t take much work to re-hang his degrees on the wall- the JD, the MBA, and his BS in Finance and Accounting. The nails were still in the wall just as he had left them. He settled the Newton’s cradle desk toy on the corner of the cherry desk, listened for a moment to the soothing clack of the balls as they demonstrated physics. He turned on his computer and got to work. His virtual desktop was just the same as it had been in Arizona and the same as it had been in this exact office before that- the advantage of working for a large, multiple officed company. 

After about two hours, he stood up again, rubbing the back of his neck, and went off in search of more coffee. It was as if he had never left. No one paid him any more attention than they had before he moved to Arizona. He moved silently through the office cafe, coffee cup clenched in his hand. Two Beta women were gossiping by the sink as Castiel poured himself a coffee. 

“Did you hear? Winchester is taking a whole month off. You know, he has that Omega brother.”

“The one that ran away for weeks and weeks.”

“That’s the one. So pretty though.”

They were silent a moment, until the other woman said, “It’s just not fair. We pluck and dye and make up and put on these stupid, painful shoes.”

The woman was wearing very feminine clothes with a very tight waist, a full face of make up, a choking amount of artificial scent and towering high heels. 

“And Omegas just show up and get the Alpha every time.”

“At least there aren’t more of them. If there were enough Omegas to go around, no Beta woman would ever get an Alpha. So anyways, Winchester’s little brother is very, very pretty but no better than he should be, I guess. Stupid little slut got himself knocked up.”

“No!”

“He’s only sixteen. Old enough to know better but way, way, way too young for a baby.”

Hearing that Dean was pregnant stopped his heart. He would have no chance now that Dean was pregnant with some other Alpha’s child. Even if, as they women said, there was no Alpha in the picture, the mere fact of the pregnancy could create a bond between Dean and this Alpha that would not easily be broken. 

“So, poor Jessica, right? I mean, a new baby now and another one in just six months when her own real baby comes. That’s why Sam’s got the month right? Paternity leave. They’re doing the sensible thing and raising the baby as their own, right?”

If Dean were due now, he must have gotten pregnant very shortly after Castiel had left, nine months ago. Castiel’s heart broke a little, thinking about how he had done what he thought to be right and it turned out so very, very wrong. Wrong for Dean too, he thought. His departure must have driven Dean to seek the attentions of another Alpha, someone who didn’t deserve him. The kind of Alpha that would leave him in the lurch, pregnant and unsupported, with Sam and his wife stepping in to adopt the child. It could break an Omega’s heart to have to give up a child like that.

The women would not be gossiping about Dean like this if there were an Alpha around and a formal mating either completed or in the offing. Castiel finishing pouring his coffee and doctoring it with creamer that he hadn’t really wanted, but had grabbed to give himself an excuse to hang around and listen without appearing to eavesdrop. He couldn’t come up with any further reason to stay, as much as he was eager to hear the office gossip about this particular topic. His heart ached as he walked back to his desk, thinking about what Dean had done. What he had driven Dean to do. 

He was ashamed of himself. He had acted so poorly. He should have never given in to temptation to touch Dean in the first place. That was his mistake. No matter how appealing he had smelled. He had broken the Omega’s heart enough to seek out an Alpha that was bad for him, to fill the place that Castiel had vacated. The place that should have rightfully been Castiel’s, if only he hadn’t been so rigid and so proud. 

It never occurred to him that Dean’s child was his own nor had he the slightest clue that the Omega he’d had what seemed like the briefest of affairs with had nearly died of heartbreak from the end of it. 

***

Dean shifted slightly in bed, groaning at the jabbing pain the motion created. The round ligament pain was supposed to have faded by the end of second trimester, but it hadn’t. His belly had gotten huge in the months since he’d come home from the Roadhouse. He contemplated getting out of bed to pee. He wasn’t supposed to. He was supposed to be on total bed rest for now but he found it humiliating to have his mom have to take away and clean a pee jar, so he pushed himself to get out of bed whenever he could to get to the bathroom. It should be okay now if his labor started. His bean was ready to be born and they would take him in for his scheduled c-section tomorrow. 

They didn’t want him to labor. The doctor thought that his heart was still too weak for that, that it just might explode with the strain of trying to push a baby out. Well, that wasn’t the technical term, but that was it, basically. He had never fully recovered from the pining sickness. So, he would have a c-section with a team of cardiac specialists on standby, in case they were needed. He’d been in and out of the hospital a few times over the course of his pregnancy. Sometimes, he thought the best thing would have been if he died while giving birth. Sam and Jessica would raise his baby as if she were their own, even though they were now having one themselves. His bean deserved better than an Omega parent who could hardly manage to stand up on his own and go pee. 

Decision made that he would attempt a bathroom trip, he carefully peeled himself out of his nest. He could no longer stand the constriction of rolling himself into blankets burrito like, but it still gave him comfort to be surrounded by soft, plush blankets, piles of pillows. At his head, under the pillows, he had a stash of undershirts that Dad, Mom, Sam and Jessica had worn, even deliberately sweated in, so that the scent of his family, his pack, was by him constantly. It wasn’t like it would have been if Castiel were around, but it was something. He managed to lever himself to a sitting position without too much difficulty. He stopped to consider if it were worth it to push his feet into the outsize slippers waiting by the bed. The swollen feet common to pregnant people were exaggerated in his case, as his heart labored to just keep beating most days. Edema sucked. 

Poor him. He decided not to bother with the slippers as he couldn’t see around his belly to put them on. As big as he was, you’d have thought it was twins, not just one, healthy, normal baby. He stood up. This was the hardest part- the getting from horizontal to vertical. Once he’d done that, it was usually pretty easy to shuffle down the hallway to the bathroom and take care of business. 

Finally, in motion, he gained the bathroom pretty quickly and did his thing, then hauled himself up again, intent on getting back into bed before he was caught out of it. He stopped at the top of the steps because he could hear voices downstairs, his Mom and Dad, talking in that hushed, angry whispering that somehow was even louder than outright yelling would be. 

“No, we are not calling this Castiel joker,” Dad said. “The risks are high enough we’ll lose Dean tomorrow as is. If this Castiel gives Dean even the slightest sign of rejection, it’s almost certain.”

“But we don’t know that he would. Sam said he’s getting divorced from that wife of his. He moved back here. That has to mean something. They were meant to be mates. Dean would never have suffered like this if they weren’t.”

Dean stopped to listen. Castiel had moved back? He was getting divorced from the wife he’d refused to leave for Dean’s sake? 

There’d been a lot of talk during his pregnancy about the wisdom of tracking down or not tracking down Castiel and informing him that he was about to become a father. They’d even consulted a family law specialist Sam had gone to law school with about their liability for keeping the knowledge of paternity from an Alpha. They learned that an Alpha had no rights or responsibilities unless he mated the Omega in question. Castiel couldn’t take the baby away, but they couldn’t force him to pay child support either. In the end, Castiel wasn’t told anything, just as Dean asked.

Dean had consistently asked that Castiel be kept in the dark, allowed to stay ignorant at wherever it was that he had run away to. Before, Dean had thought he couldn’t handle a final rejection of him and his baby. Now he knew different though. He would survive the birth and after. It didn’t matter that Cas didn’t want him, because he had to live for the baby now. It also didn’t matter if Cas came back to him. The damage to his heart had been done and time might make him stronger again, but he would always be damaged. Castiel mating him wouldn’t miraculously restore him to full cardiac function. The doctors thought, in time, after the baby was born, he’d get back to functional levels. 

“I don’t care if he divorces a dozen wives, I don’t want him around my kid. Maybe they might be meant to be mates but as far as I’m concerned, he’s a thirty something man who screwed a sixteen year old kid in all the ways possible.”

“Sam said Castiel was looking terrible. Maybe he’s suffering a bit of pining sickness too.”

“That’s the least he deserves.”

Dean had been slowly, carefully making his way down the stairs, clutching the railing like it was a lifeline. He wasn’t supposed to take stairs but he didn’t care. This discussion was one that needed his input. In fact, as far as Dean was concerned, his was the only one whose opinion really mattered at the moment. He reached the bottom of the steps without incident and waddled into the living room, hands supporting his belly. 

“Dean! You shouldn’t be out of bed,” Mom said, immediately wrapping her arm around his shoulder, trying to steer him to the sofa. 

“Is it true? He’s back at Sammy’s work?”

Mom seemed reluctant to answer but she eventually said, “Sam says Castiel returned to work today.”

Dean didn’t wait for any further answer. He just dug around in the pocket of his robe for his phone. He called Sammy, not caring that it was still Sam’s work day and that Sam had said he would be very busy today, getting things wrapped up so he could take time off to help Dean after the birth.

“What’s happening? Is everything okay? Are you going into labor? Are Mom and Dad with you?” Sam asked, before hello or anything like that.

“I’m fine, Sammy, but you need to get Cas’s new number for me,” Dean ordered.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sam said. “Look, now isn’t a good time to discuss this. I’m in a meeting.”

“Well, I don’t have much time left before the baby is here, so as far as I’m concerned, now is a good time. I’d like him to know he’s going to be a dad before the baby is here. He needs to know that.”

“We can talk about this tonight.”

“No. We’re talking about this now. I need to talk to Castiel.”

***

They were going over the portfolios that Castiel would be covering for Sam, who had gotten over his earlier rage but was still cold, speaking efficiently, without anything that would give offense. Sam had also doused himself in heavy scent blockers, so that he smelled of nothing at all instead of Alpha rage. It was the polite thing to do for an Alpha working in a mixed office, but it was unnerving, like a blank white wall that started talking to one. 

Sam’s phone vibrated on the desk and he looked at the screen briefly. “I’m sorry, I really should take this.”

Without waiting for Castiel’s assent, Sam spoke into the phone. What’s happening? Is everything okay? Are you going into labor? Are Mom and Dad with you?” Sam asked, sounding worried. There was a moment where he listened to the response.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sam said. “Look, now isn’t a good time to discuss this. I’m in a meeting.”

Then he added, “We can talk about this tonight.”

Castiel’s heart pounded. It was obviously Dean on the end of the line. Pregnant Dean who was apparently so close to giving birth that any call from him might be him going into labor. Castiel found that he didn’t care if Dean had gotten pregnant by another Alpha. He just wanted a chance to win Dean back and to repair the mistakes he had made. From office gossip, it sounded like the other Alpha wasn't around. After some brief thought earlier, Castiel had decided he would be happy to raise any child of Dean’s as if it was his own child, given the chance. He would make this all up to Dean somehow. There was only the not so simple matter of breaking through Sam Winchester’s protective rage. 

Sam frowned and then pressed his lips together until they nearly disappeared, his forehead growing as wrinkled as a topology map. He listened to what Dean had to say silently though. He shook his head and finally said, “Okay. I think you’re making a mistake, but here.”

Then Sam held out his phone to Castiel, who stared at it, not quite comprehending what he was supposed to do, feeling strangely numb and stupid.

“It’s my brother Dean. He wants to talk to you and he says it’s important. So don’t screw this up, Novak.”

***

Finally, after the longest time, when Dean was starting to wonder if it had been a mistake to call, he heard the low, rumbly thunder of Castiel’s voice across the tinny speaker of the phone. 

“Hello, Dean.”

“Cas, is that you?” 

Before Dean could get anything more out, Cas spoke again, “Dean, I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing. I want a second chance. I...”

“Look, that doesn’t matter,” Dean said. “Whatever you got going, whatever you think you’re doing tomorrow, you gotta cancel. You have to be there at the hospital and see your daughter getting born.”

“My what?”

“Your daughter. You’re going to be a daddy. You and me, we made a baby. A little girl.”

“But how?”

“No condom, remember?” Dean said, frustrated at Castiel’s lack of response. In his mind, so many times, he’d imagined this moment, telling Cas about the baby. He thought Cas might be furious. Or maybe elated. He thought he might get a raging denial. Or Cas would come in an instant to claim him and the baby. But in his mind, it had never been this flat confusion. 

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Cas asked. “I would have come to you. I would have dropped everything.”

“I tried. I called. Your number belongs to some chick called Amy now.”

There was a long pause. 

“I’m sorry. I got a new phone completely. I lost my phone on the drive to Arizona and I thought getting a new number might be safest, to remove the temptation to call you. Dean, I’ve thought about you every day and every night since I left. It was a mistake to leave you.”

“Yeah, no shit. Well, tomorrow at nine in the morning, Lawrence General. If you want to see your little girl be born.”

Dean didn’t think he dared to say more without cracking up. He couldn’t bear to hear Castiel’s answer one way or the other for fear it would be no, that he wouldn’t be there. He hung up and shoved the phone back into his robe pocket. Then he thought about the effort involved in getting back upstairs to his nest. 

His mom was right there and she said, “John why don’t you go up for some of his blankets. Dean, honey, we’ll set you up on the sofa for the rest of the day.”

Dean could only agree and let himself be prompted to lie back on the sofa. 

***

Castiel stared at Sam’s phone. Dean was pregnant. Well, yes, he’d known that for most of the day, but the child was his? He was going to be a father? 

He had resigned himself to never being a father. He and Amelia had tried so hard in the first years of their marriage. He had come to think of himself as sterile but that wasn’t true, was it? It was Amelia that was barren. Omegas, naturally, were more fertile, especially with an Alpha. He’d known that, of course. That’s why he had always used condoms with Dean, but for that one time. But somehow, he had still thought of himself as someone who would always be childless. Tomorrow morning, apparently, this would no longer be the case. 

How did they know precisely when Dean was going to deliver though? He was of the understanding that even if medical steps were taken to start labor, that sort of thing was unpredictable and an Omega could take two hours to deliver a baby or two days.

Sam retrieved the phone. 

“There’s something you need to know before you consider showing up at the hospital for Dean’s c-section.”

“Is he? Are they doing well?” Castiel asked, immediately worried. Omegas almost always delivered easily and naturally. C-sections were quite rare as far as Castiel knew. Was there some problem with the baby?

“The baby is healthy, but Dean isn’t doing too well. He’s been sick for most of the pregnancy. He’s been in and out of the hospital. He’s almost died because of this baby and if you’re not prepared to be the Alpha he needs you to be, you just need to back away. No, I suppose it’s not accurate to say he’s been sick because of the pregnancy. He’s been sick because of you. Because you abandoned him.”

Castiel could only think of their last time together, about how close he had come to placing a claim on Dean. Dean’s inner Omega had to have known that, had have been preparing his body for a mating bond. 

“Pining sickness? He’s been suffering from pining sickness and you never thought to even try and contact me? Do you think so little of me that you wouldn’t call?”

“Dean asked me not to. Honestly, it sounds like you abandoned him pretty thoroughly when you dumped him.”

“I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t realize.”

“Yeah, well, you screwed up and I guess Dean wants some kind of second chance, but if you’re not going to be that standup guy, the best thing you could do is head back to Arizona or where ever it was you fucked off to the first time.”

“No, I will be here for Dean in anyway he will allow, for the rest of my life.”

Castiel tried to get Sam to agree that Cas should go over to meet Dean right then. Or even immediately after work. But no, no matter how much he pressed, the invitation remained the one Dean offered. Tomorrow morning, at nine, at the hospital, for the birth. Anything else to be determined later, by Dean and only Dean. 

Castiel couldn’t sleep that night. He laid in his ‘bed’ - just an air mattress. All the furniture had been left with Amelia and he had returned to Kansas with little more than as many clothes and personal items that could fit in his biggest suitcase. He stared at the ceiling, feeling restless, in turns angry and worried. Yes, he’d made mistakes with Dean, but to let a pregnancy go nine months and not even try and contact him? When his mate was apparently sick to nearly dying with pining sickness. Castiel didn’t blame Dean for not wanting to contact him. You couldn’t blame the Omega in this case, but the Alphas around him should have known better. Castiel felt a frustrated protectiveness both for his mate and his soon to be born daughter. He should have been there. He should have been informed.

Would Dean ever be his? Yes, tomorrow they would both be parents to the same baby girl, but would that mean anything beyond that? A father? How could he be a father. He didn’t know how. His own father had abandoned them when Castiel was still young. He had been raised, such as he had, by older brothers- Michael and Gabe did what they could, but they had been teenagers themselves. Castiel found it hard to picture himself as a parent. Yes, though it would be voluntary, as he was not mated to Dean, he would set up child support immediately, but being a father meant far beyond that. He could only hope he would be allowed to take a place in the child’s life. He hoped he would have a choice to do things differently than his parents had. 

Castiel fell asleep, finally, after long hours of tossing and turning, but was woken by a phone call at about two in the morning. It was Sam Winchester. 

“We’re taking Dean to the hospital. He went into labor. He wanted me to tell you to hurry.”

Castiel was instantly awake. 

“Lawrence General,” Sam was saying. “Just get there as soon as you can.”

Castiel dressed in a hurry and was out the door before he had time to think. His car was, at the moment, a bit of a junker. He’d left the Prius with Amelia and bought the cheapest thing he could when he’d flown in from Arizona- a big gold Lincoln Continental. It was cheap but spacious and comfortable and it ran reliably for the few days he’d had it. He looked in the big, empty back seat in the rear view mirror and realized he didn’t yet have a car seat for the infant. His mate was having a child and he didn’t have any preparations made. He should have at least spent his evening shopping for a car seat. That would be the minimum, wouldn’t it? He should be able to transport his infant child. He would have to get a different apartment than the one he leased, he would need two bedroom, at least. Maybe he should let the lease run out on the house he’d bought with Amelia in Lawrence run out. They’d rented it out rather than selling when they moved. Or would it be better to buy another house completely? Should he buy a new house without memories of a marriage he only started to understand was stifling and dead now that he was out of it?

He was so immersed in thoughts about preparing for his new life as a father that he didn’t even remember the trip to the hospital. It was as if he’d just thought about heading there and suddenly, he was there, no intervening streets or stop light. He parked his boat of a car as close to the entrance as he could and ran to the entrance. 

There was confusion, misdirection and a terrifying moment where a security guard seemed like he would stop Castiel from getting to his mate. Castiel only realized he was on the verge of going full Alpha when the man reached for the can of weapon grade scent blocker on his belt. Castiel looked down at his hands and his nails had gone full claw on him. He looked at his hands like they belonged to someone else. How had that happened? He could hardly do the eye flare and had only dropped fang once in his life. He got a hold of himself and the security guard visibly relaxed as Castiel retracted his teeth and smoothed his nails. He was finally directed up to the maternity ward.

A nurse greeted him, a skinny Omega named Garth, according to the name tag hung on his green hospital scrubs. “You’re Castiel Novak?”

“Yes, I was told my mate is having his baby tonight. I mean, Dean Winchester.”

“Dean’s just getting prepped. I’m going to take you this way and we’ll get you checked in. I know it’ll seem a real pain when you just want to get there, but you can understand how we can’t have people just roaming around the floor, what with all those precious babies just born and Mama Omegas at their most vulnerable.”

“Yes, of course, can we get this over with? I need to get to my mate.”

He knew that Dean wasn’t his mate. He hadn’t earned that yet. But he couldn’t stop himself from saying it. 

Garth asked for Castiel’s ID, typed stuff in a computer then presented him with a plastic bracelet that he slipped onto Castiel’s wrist without waiting for an assent. Castiel wondered why he was being so docile, but then recognized the calming scent of Omega. Garth, the nurse, was pumping out the scent. It was something like the smell of clean soap and baking maybe? Possibly clean laundry? It was the kind of scent that made you think about home and things domestic. There were times where any Omega could calm an Alpha by scent alone but there were some Omegas who could produce those scents on demand. Garth must have been one of them. 

“Now, I’m just about to bring you back. This wristband has an info chip and you have to let any nurse or security guard that asks scan it. It’s for security, you understand? It just lets them know it’s you. All standard procedure. When you’re given your baby by the nurse or whenever, they’ll scan you both, just to make sure we’ve given you the right one. Can’t have you holding strange babies on accident.”

Garth was trying to make light of it, but Castiel realized there was a very serious concern. So many couples just couldn’t have babies and it was far from unheard of for people to try and steal them right from the maternity ward, before any kind of bond was formed with the parents. 

“Yes, of course,” Castiel said. “Can I get to my mate now?”

“Now, put these scrubs on. You can pull them on right over your clothes. You might want to take that coat and suit jacket off first. Okey dokey, now these go over your shoes.”

Castiel did as he was directed, let himself be garbed in the blue hospital scrubs, complete with a close fitting hat over his hair. He was directed to wash his hands well and only when he had cleaned them to Garth’s satisfaction was he allowed to the delivery area and ushered to an operating room just as Mary Winchester walked out. She looked like she was on the verge of punching him but she controlled herself.

“He keeps asking for you. Do not let him down this time. They will never find the body. Do you understand me?”

He was not offended at the threat. He deserved no less. 

“Perfectly.”

“Go in. They’re just starting.”

Dean was set up with a curtain blocking his lower half from view, but from what Castiel could see, he was hooked up to every conceivable monitor and machine, with IVs in place and a big medical team bustling on the other side of the curtain. Dean was not looking well. He seemed like a shadow of his former, lovely self- face hollow, those Cupid’s bow lips pale and chapped, his green eyes sunken. If Castiel hadn’t been told Dean was pregnant, he would never know. The round belly was hidden by the curtain and Dean seemed skinnier than Castiel remembered him. 

“You came in time,” Dean said, his voice scratchy and weak.

“I came the instant I got the call and I will stay forever if you’ll let me.”

***

They’d said he wouldn’t feel anything as they took the baby out. That wasn’t quite true. It wasn’t pain and mostly he couldn’t feel his lower body, but there were sensations. He could feel movement and tugging, pressure a bit. Mostly it was like it was happening to someone else. Like the part of him behind the curtain was another person completely. He was scared though, in a dazed, disconnected kind of way, but Cas was there, holding his hand, so it was okay. Cas had come. His mate was here with him.

Then there was a cry. A baby. 

A nurse asked Castiel if he wanted to cut the cord, so he was gone for a moment. Then someone in scrubs was hustling around the curtain and a warm bundle was put on Dean’s chest. His baby. His girl. 

Nothing else in the world mattered at that moment. With the nurse’s help, he was able to hold her, his heart melting as he looked into her strangely wise little face, damp, dark curls covering her head. There could be no doubt that this was Castiel’s child- she had his cleft chin and prominent cheekbones and even just minutes old, she smelled of him, an overlay of that forest and thunderstorm scent that was so perfect. Dean looked at Castiel and saw that the Alpha was staring with rapt attention at them both, love, adoration clear on his face. Castiel’s hand was laid lightly on the baby’s back. Dean’s fingers were just touching Castiel’s. 

Dean sighed in happiness. Even if Castiel fucked off again, at least they had had this one perfect moment where they were a family and he was loved. 

“Promise you’ll take care of her,” he demanded from Castiel. 

“Always,” Castiel affirmed. “And you. I will always be here for the both of you.”

The dizzying sensation crept up on Dean suddenly. His head got swimmy and then seconds later, his daughter was stolen out of his arms as some alarm was screaming its head off. Then as the darkness threatened, he heard someone shout, “He’s crashing! Get the Alpha out of here, now.”

***

It had been a moment of sheer bliss, of happiness unlike anything he had ever expected to feel. He and Dean had been as they should be for a brief moment- together, with their child. Yes, Castiel had been aware that behind the curtain, doctors and nurses were still scrabbling to put Dean back together again, though they moved with a practiced, steady fast pace, as if nothing unusual was happening- this moment and this miracle was the everyday for them. Just another Tuesday morning, not the moment of utter grace it truly was. 

Then Dean’s face suddenly went pale, nearly white and his eyes shut. An alarm sounded instantly and the room exploded in a fury of activity. The nurse took the baby from Dean and placed it in Castiel’s arms and he was led away from Dean. His Alpha resisted. His mate was in danger. He had to help. He needed to help. He tried to turn back to Dean but the nurse with him wouldn’t let him. He was taken out through the set of doors and given over to Garth’s supervision. Garth had one of those clear sided bassinets they used in hospital nurseries with him.

“Hey, Dad, look at the both of you,” Garth said with a beaming smile. “We’ve got some things we have to get taken care of for this little angel. You know, just weigh her and get some diapers on her. You just come this way.”

“No! My mate,” Castiel said and he could start to feel his Alpha stir again as Garth reached for the infant. 

“Your mate needs you to take care of the baby now,” Garth said, voice high, but level and soothing. The fresh laundry smell permeated the air, flowing over him and he could feel himself starting to relax, against his will. He kept reaching for the baby until Castiel found himself surrendering the child, who was quickly placed in the bassinet. Garth fastened a miniature version of the plastic hospital bracelet on his baby girl’s wrist. 

“The baby needs you. You come with me down this hallway. Okay. Let’s get moving. Down the hall. With me. That’s right.”

Castiel found himself walking, following the nurse and his child. 

“You don’t understand,” Castiel said, unable not to follow, but feeling like he was being ripped apart, like part of him was still standing back in that operating room. “I never got a chance to tell him how sorry I was. How much I love him.”

“He knows, guy, he knows. Now, hey, we’re at the Neo-natal unit. Just going to scan you both in. Doing good. Doing real good,” Garth said, as a nurse waiting for them used a gun like thing to scan both of their hospital bracelets. 

“You’ll stay to manage the Alpha?” The other nurse asked Garth.

“That’s the plan,” Garth said. “He’s doing good. No need to worry about him. Now, let’s get our little angel here taken care of.”

Garth and Castiel stood out of the way, to the side, as the neo-natal team worked quickly and efficiently on the baby and before Castiel realized what was happening, they were both taken to another hospital room with a chair and an empty hospital bed. Garth directed him to sit and Castiel’s daughter was placed in his arms. A short, very tired looking, young man with a white coat over his hospital scrubs followed them in. 

“Hi, I’m Kevin Tran, the neonatal resident on call. I just wanted to let you know your little girl is doing great. She hit a seven at the five minute Apgar, which is fantastic all things considered. Just over seven pounds too. I’m going to let Garth here take care of you two for now, but I’ll be on call in case of any emergency.”

There was a moment where Castiel was completely alone with his daughter. She’d been cleaned up, swaddled into a white blanket with a little white cap on her head. She seemed calm and sleepy, but her eyes were open. They were bright blue, like his own. He remembered hearing that most babies were born with blue eyes. Dean’s were green. Perhaps she would grow into green eyes. She seemed impossibly small and delicate. How could it be that any human ever started out this small? He was thankful for the chair. He was fearful that he would have dropped her if he were not sitting. For someone that was rapidly becoming the center of his universe, she seemed impossibly tiny and fragile. 

Garth entered the room again with a bottle. 

“You want to give your little angel her first top up?” Garth asked, holding out the short bottle with a few ounces of white fluid in it. 

“Shouldn’t that be reserved for Dean?” Castiel asked, suddenly aware again that he was separated from his mate. “Doesn’t a bottle feeding right off make them not want the breast?”

Garth seemed thoughtful for a moment, but then said, “It can, but it’ll be fine. It was never in the plan for her to be breastfed. That’s what the chart says. Let me just show you how.”

“Even so, shouldn’t Dean give her the first bottle?” Castiel asked, becoming worried again about how carefully everyone was not mentioning Dean. It had been alarming, they way they had been shuffled out of the surgery so quickly. Dean had to be in danger. There had been alarms going off and he had to get to his mate.

“The baby needs you, guy,” Garth said. “Dean is with our best doctors right now, so that means you have take care of the baby.”

“Of course,” Castiel said, aware that Garth was manipulating him by Omega calming scent and by getting him to focus on the baby. He understood why and tried not to fight it. Dean last words to him were to ask him to take care of their girl. Would those be Dean’s last words period? The delivery had obviously gone terribly, horribly wrong. Was Dean dying or dead already? He’d heard stories of Omegas sick with pining who lived only long enough to deliver their child, then died after giving the child to the care of another.

“The last thing he said to me was to take care of her,” Castiel said. 

“And you’d do it even if he didn’t ask, wouldn’t you? I can tell you’ll be a good father to this little girl,” Garth said. “Just so you know, no news isn’t necessarily bad news. I just can’t tell you anything about Dean, since you’re not officially the mate. Now, let’s get this angel fed.”

Garth guided Castiel, helping him delicately bring the bottle to his daughter’s mouth. She spat it out at first, but then after a try or two, she was suckling easily and Castiel was relieved. Garth left them to go attend to others, promising to return soon. She was healthy and strong and he loved her instantly. That much was clear to him. Anything he could do for her, he would do. 

Eventually, she drained the bottle and her blue eyes closed. She fell to sleep in his arms, as if she trusted him to hold her and keep her safe. How could she trust him, when he had messed up so awfully. He had broken so many promises, made so many misjudgments. He had betrayed Amelia and Dean both. He had tried to do what he thought was right only to have it explode in his face. He had taken the path he thought was right, but it had turned out to be only the easy path. And now, here in his arms was this innocent, lovely being who would have to trust to him not to screw up and to do the hard things. He might not get a second chance with Dean but he vowed that he would do everything he could not to need a second chance with his daughter. 

What seemed like hours later, Sam Winchester slipped through the partly open door. He looked as exhausted as Castiel felt, wearing clothes more casual than any Castiel had seen him in before.

“Can I see my niece?” He asked. “Don’t worry. I won’t ask to hold her right now. I know you’re probably barely keeping it together. I know I am and I’m just the brother.”

“Is Dean?”

“Back in surgery, last I heard,” Sam said. “They thought they got all the bleeds but his blood pressure was still dropping, even though they’ve given him four units of blood.”

“Sam? Was the plan for you and Jessica to adopt the baby? Should you be the one holding her now?”

Sam shook his head. “No, that was never the plan. I promised Dean I wouldn’t take his baby and I still won’t. Dean was going to raise her with Mom and Dad’s help and if Dean didn’t make it, the plan had been for Mom and Dad to raise her. But after he talked to you earlier, before he went into labor, he made all of us promise that in case something happened, you would be the legal father, if you would take that responsibility. I know we can’t make you step up, but it’s what Dean wants.”

“There isn’t any question of that,” Castiel said. “Of course I claim her as my child and if Dean will let me, I hope I can win him back and win his trust and the trust of your family.”

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that you’ll win Dean back,” Sam said. 

“I will do my utmost to be worthy of him.”

It was a difficult thing to do. His inner Alpha urged him to not let go of the tiny, precious life in his arms, but he asked Sam if he wanted to hold the child, just for a little while. Sam did, so Castiel passed the newborn over. She seemed almost to disappear in his arms, he was so big and she was so small. They sat in silence together for a while, each marveling over her. Then Sam gave her back and went off to see if he could find more news about Dean.

“You’ll let me know when you hear?”

“I will.”

As time wore on, the window grew light and he suddenly realized his workplace would be expecting him soon. He pondered for a moment the logistics of getting parental leave with no notice, if he would even be eligible. His employers would not be happy to have him out for a month so soon after his return. At the very least, he had to call in and let them know there was no way he could make an appearance today. He shuffled his daughter around until he could reach under the scrubs he was still wearing into the suit pants underneath and retrieve the cell phone in his pocket. He quickly placed the call to Naomi and explained his current circumstances.

“I’m aware of the situation,” she said, crisply. “I spoke with Sam Winchester just before your call. Normally, a parental leave with no notice like this would be impossible, however, he offered to rescind his leave should you place a request. Since you were primarily going to cover his work during his leave anyway, I see no reason we cannot allow this. You’ll need to come in during the next day or two to complete the paperwork, of course.”

“Thank you.”

“Milton, Milligan and Morgan is a family friendly company,” she said. 

***

As Dean came to awareness, he realized he must have been out for some time. He remembered going into the c-section, begging them to get Castiel for him. after that, his memory came only in confused, sporadic bursts. He couldn’t remember Castiel being in the room with him as the doctors worked, but he must have been, because Dean remembered asking Castiel to take care of his baby. He remembered the cry of his baby. Not much else. 

Dean was uncomfortable in the hospital bed. The IV in his arm was pinching and there was a plastic tube snaked around his face, up in his nose- an oxygen cannula. He recognized that from some of his previous hospital stays. He wasn’t in pain, not really, but it was like there was a nagging awareness of it having gone away temporarily rather than permanently. More than that, there was a distinct lack of baby. They’d promised, even with the c-section, that the Bean could room in with him until they both could be discharged. He felt empty, alone. 

Until he looked to the left. 

There was one of those clear hospital crib things and the Bean was in it, sleeping peacefully. She was beautiful, Dean thought, even with her dark hair covered up in a little hat. He listened intently and heard the soft sounds of her breathing. Just on the other side of the hospital crib was Castiel, sleeping in a hospital recliner, his hand placed possessively on the side on the crib, as if to alert him if anyone tried to take the Bean away. Castiel wore scrubs and looked like he hadn’t shaven for several days. 

When he saw that, some knot inside of him that had been drawn tight for nine months loosened. They were going to be okay, all of them. Him, Castiel and the Bean. He was able to relax and slip back into a deep, comfortable sleep. 

When Dean woke again, Castiel was still in the room. This time, he was dressed in his usual clothes, not scrubs, but oddly, he was holding the Bean close to him in a sling. He was feeding her a bottle. That hurt, just a little. He was the one who was supposed to be feeding her, from his body, but he’d known going in that he couldn’t. There were cardiac medicines and other drugs that the doctors had wanted him on as soon as possible after the birth, drugs that could hurt a developing baby, so they’d planned on her being bottle fed right from the get go, even though it was almost unheard of for an Omega not to nurse their baby. 

“Hey, Claire. Look. Your Om is awake,” Castiel said.

“Claire? You named her Claire? She was supposed to be Cassie,” Dean complained.

“I wanted to wait until you could name her yourself, but something had to go on the birth certificate. The hospital administrators assured me it would be no bother to change it if you objected.”

“I thought I had like five days or something for the birth certificate.”

Castiel looked upset about something. He frowned and said, “It’s been nearly ten days since the birth. You were in a medically induced coma for several days and very slow to come out of it.”

Ten days? He’d been out of it for ten days?

“Claire was released a few days ago. We’ve been staying in your room as much as possible. You seem to do better when the two of us are here.”

“You’re here to stay now?” Dean asked. “At least for Claire.”

“And you, if you’ll have me. I’m sorry. I went about everything badly. I know an apology is not enough to make up for what I did, but if you let me, I will spend the rest of my life proving our bond to you. You are my mate and I was wrong to have left you.”

“Yeah, you were an idiot,” Dean said, but happily. This was what he wanted, the dream that seemed out of reach for so long. Then Castiel set the bottle aside for the moment. He stood up, walked the few steps to the bed and delicately pulled Claire out of the sling. Before Dean realized what he was doing, the baby was placed in his arms.

“Meet our daughter, Claire,” Castiel said. 

The baby squirmed in his arms for a moment, squinched up her face like she was getting ready for a cry, then as Dean pulled her a little closer, she settled down, started rooting at his chest. 

“Ah, still hungry,” Castiel said, holding out the bottle for Dean to take. 

It took a moment for Dean to figure shit out. With Castiel’s help, he got the baby and the bottle positioned comfortably. Only then did she settle fully down, her soft, sweet weight in his arms. She stared at him as she suckled on the bottle, her little eyes a deep blue like her father’s. Love for her welled up in him, threatening to overwhelm him. Here she was, his sweet Bean, the weight he’d carried for nine months all alone, but she was here now and his mate was with them both, hovering protectively close by. Things were good. Better than good. Things were perfect.

“Dean, are you okay?” Castiel asked, reaching out and touching Dean’s cheek. It was only then that Dean realized he was crying. 

“Yeah, I am now,” Dean said. “Finally.”


End file.
